Reading, _______, and 'Rithmetic

This is great! My personal take: my mom taught us Getty-Dubay italics many years ago; it's a very quick, functional, pretty script. Although my handwriting has deteriorated somewhat since then, the speed is still there. Try it. Emphasis mine, as usual.

Improved Writing Helps With Two of the Other R's -- NEWSWEEK -- NOV. 12 (B8, Informed Reader)

Even in the age of the BlackBerry and the computer keyboard, educators are aiming to improve kids' handwriting in the belief it will make them better students, writes Newsweek's Raina Kelley.

The educators aren't looking for beautifully crafted letters. They want students from kindergarten to the fourth grade to write more fluently and more quickly. Studies suggest that writing and thinking in those early years go hand in hand. If children don't work on penmanship enough, they risk wasting valuable mental energy later on when they struggle to craft letters, according to studies by Vanderbilt University professor Steve Graham and others. Lack of handwriting practice tends to breed problems in spelling and arithmetic.